Roxane Gay
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The Whole World, Opened Up
I don’t really want to know what a man looks like when his face has been cannibalized. I don’t really want to know about this dog-breastfeeding woman. I don’t want to be in the position of being able to judge…
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Roxane Gay’s Reading Roundup, Fall 2012
Our essays editor surveys new novels and collections — coming-of-age tales, journeys, and love stories — and looks ahead to forthcoming works.
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A Matter of Dignity
Certain constituencies are always shoved aside, always told their issues will be addressed at some nebulous point in the future. During a lengthy debate, to see these issues merit neither discussion nor debate speaks to how little dignity is valued…
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The Politics of Entitlement
To be entitled means believing you have an inherent right to something. It is very easy to feel entitled, to feel like we deserve a certain quality of life or valuable opportunities. I don’t know that anyone is immune from…
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The Illusion of Safety/The Safety of Illusion
There are things that rip my skin open and reveal what lies beneath but I don’t believe in trigger warnings.
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An Elegy for Oxford American
There has been a shakeup recently at literary magazine The Oxford American. Editor and founder Marc Smirnoff and managing editor Carol Ann Fitzgerald were fired on July 15. They have since compiled a website detailing events leading up to and after their…
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We Are Many. We Are Everywhere.
A great deal of the conversation about publishing and diversity is grounded in the idea that there simply aren’t many writers of color.
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A Tale of Three Coming Out Stories
We are still in that time in our history where public figures come out of invisible closets largely built by a public insatiable in its desire to know all the intimate details of the private lives of very public people.
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The Rumpus Interview with Valerie Trueblood
“The short story is a dark form, don’t you think? There are sunny ones but they’re in the minority. I don’t want complete darkness, though. I like a dappled story.”
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The Rumpus Interview with Karolina Waclawiak
Roxane Gay talks with Karolina Waclawiak about her new novel, How to Get into the Twin Palms, the displacement of being from different worlds, loneliness, and Los Angeles.
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An Open Letter
On her blog today, respected critic Ruth Franklin wrote an open letter to the editors of Bookforum. She writes: I have considered opting out of writing for magazines at which women are not represented among the top editors, such as Bookforum. But…
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Problem Solving: Part 1
When we talk about issues of representation, many editors say, “Where do I find writers of color?” I’d like to start to answer that question by compiling a working list of writers of color, across genres. Please feel free to…